In the 1960s, American audiences loved the television show “Bewitched,” a sitcom about an average man who is married to a beautiful blonde witch. The fanciful show presented witches as supernatural beings rather than human beings who just practice witchcraft. Although it could be viewed as harmless fun, “Bewitched” was one of the most mainstream programs to whitewash black magic. However, it was not the first.
In 1942, a movie called “I Married a Witch” was released. The comical title describes it very well: It’s a silly story about a mortal man who falls in love with and weds a witch. Interestingly, although it was produced by Paramount Pictures, it was released by United Artists, since the former studio sold some of its extra finished films to the smaller company. The titular sorceress was played by Veronica Lake, a blonde beauty famous for her “peekaboo bang” hairstyle covering her right eye. The man who marries her was played by Fredric March in a rare comedic foray for the often-dramatic actor.
A Witching Story
This movie doesn’t start in the present day; it begins three centuries earlier during the Salem witch trials. Puritan leader Jonathan Wooley (March) has denounced Jennifer (Lake) and her father, Daniel (Cecil Kellaway) as a witch and warlock. As they are about to be burnt at the stake, Jennifer curses Wooley and all his male descendants to marry shrewish women. After they die, their ashes are buried beneath a tree to imprison their evil spirits. Generations pass, and the curse continues to plague the Wooleys.In 1942, lightning strikes the tree and sets it afire, releasing the spirits of the witch and warlock. Without any corporeal forms, they float over to the nearby Wooley house as two plumes of smoke. There, they find the current Wooley descendant, Wallace (March), who is running for governor and who is engaged to marry Estelle Masterson (Susan Hayward), the daughter of a wealthy publisher who is Wallace’s political backer, J.B. Masterson (Robert Warwick). Jennifer wants to cause trouble for Wooley, so her father burns down a local hotel and uses the fire to turn her into a beautiful young woman. Wallace rescues her from the fire, and she tries to seduce him without using magic.
When Wallace proves resistant to her charms, Jennifer concocts a love potion. However, the plan goes wrong when she gets knocked out by a painting, and Wallace revives her with her own potion! She falls hopelessly in love with him and is determined to stop his wedding. She and her father crash the ceremony, but he does not share Jennifer’s desire to help Wooley. While Daniel’s drunken bumbling lands him in jail, Estelle calls off the wedding when she finds Wallace embracing Jennifer. Having lost Mr. Masterson’s support, Wallace decides to admit he loves Jennifer, and they elope. However, his bewitching adventures have just begun.
Supernaturally Suggestive
Do you ever wonder why classic films aren’t rated? While a few have been given ratings by the Classification and Rating Administration in recent years, no movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood was rated upon its original release. If you’ve read my articles before, you probably know why. Between 1934 and 1968, the Production Code Administration (PCA) served the function which the rating system serves now: it would review every movie released in the United States and determine whether it was acceptable for the whole family. The difference was the PCA worked with the filmmakers throughout production to help them make the movies according to the Motion Picture Production Code’s guidelines. This would ensure they were written with intelligence and creativity but without the violence, suggestive content, and foul language which would make them inappropriate or offensive to some audience members.Although the PCA technically lasted until it was replaced with the rating system in 1968, the Code was not effectively enforced for the full thirty-four years of its existence. In 1954, Joseph I. Breen, the PCA’s director since its foundation twenty years earlier, retired. As soon as he was succeeded by his longtime assistant, Geoffrey M. Shurlock, the PCA lost its efficacy, and film content began to change, gradually but drastically. By the late 1950s, the Code had all but been forgotten. This wasn’t the first time that Mr. Shurlock’s incompetent Code-enforcement affected film content, since he was the interim director for a whole year in 1941-1942. While Joe Breen became vice-president of RKO Radio Pictures, Mr. Shurlock unofficially commandeered the PCA during what I call the Non-Code Era. Thankfully, Mr. Breen returned to the PCA after exactly a year, but the difference in quality of many movies made during his absence is obvious.
“I Married a Witch” was released on Oct. 30, 1942, a few months after Mr. Breen’s return to the PCA. It’s clear it was made during the Non-Code Era, since it has many characteristics of Pre-Code films, the risqué movies made in the early 1930s, or Shurlock Era films, the daring movies that tested the Code in the late 1950s. Witchcraft, a subject which was usually taboo in Code films, is the central theme of this movie. Black magic is effectively and dangerously wielded by Jennifer and Daniel, but witchcraft is not denounced. In fact, Jennifer lives happily ever after without any sign of good conquering evil. Besides that, Jennifer’s characterization is very suggestive; her dialogue, costuming, and behavior are far more risqué than one usually sees in Code films, particularly because she is the sympathetic leading lady, not a villainous designing woman.
Bewitching the People
One of the most interesting scenes in “I Married a Witch” has nothing to do with its being a non-Code film. After Wooley loses Masterson’s support, he seems doomed to lose the election. However, Jennifer uses her powers to fix things for him. She casts a spell which has everyone promoting and voting for her husband, even his opponent! As if that isn’t enough, she magically changes the vote on some ballots, which is depicted with a little animation. Isn’t that amusing, in light of how some recent U.S. elections seem to have had similar, shall we say, surprising outcomes?Some black magic may have been used for this movie to get away with breaking the Code so much, too. Geoffrey Shurlock was more like Daniel than any other character in this story, since he was raised in the Theosophical cult of Lomaland in San Diego, California. While not exactly a coven of witches, this religion was undeniably occult, with its founders having open ties to Satanism as well as multiple other religions. Mr. Shurlock later claimed he was an Episcopalian, naming a false alma mater to hide his connection to Theosophy. Nevertheless, black magic and disregard for the Christian morality on which the Code was based seemed to start sneaking in every time he was in charge.
If you want to watch an appropriately themed movie this Halloween, one option is “I Married a Witch.” It’s available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video. It’s not a horror film; its onscreen content isn’t scary at all. It is, however, frightening to consider that a man whose job was to protect American morals from being corrupted by Hollywood may have intentionally destroyed the Code and the wholesome movies it produced.
